Jameson

Taillon

Double-digit punchouts: good. Three homers: Not so much. The biggest of those roundtrippers was a grand slam by Brandon Lowe, and Lowe got him again for a solo shot along with one from Oneil Cruz. If you take away those blasts it’s an excellent outing for Taillon, but that’s obviously not how this works. He’ll try to match the strikeouts while keeping the ball in the park in-between them against the Mets on Saturday.

Taillon surrendered seven hits, including home runs to Cedric Mullins and Junior Caminero, which were enough to saddle him with a loss. The -year-old veteran averaged just 91.4 mph on his fastball, but still managed to generate nine swinging strikes on his breaking and off-speed pitches, finishing with a respectable 29 percent CSW. He’ll bring a solid 2.53 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 7/4 K/BB ratio across 10 2/3 innings into a favorable home matchup against the Pirates on Sunday to close out a two-start week.

Taillon didn’t allow any runs, but there was some good luck involved with that. He walked four against three strikeouts, and he exited after throwing 52-of-85 pitches for strikes. There were some encouraging signs from Taillon — particularly considering how bad he looked for much of the spring — but there was some smoke-and-mirrors to this scoreless affair. He gets the Rays on Wednesday.

It was actually Taillon’s best performance among his five spring starts, as he lowered his ERA from 22.18 to 17.55. He also struck out six, doubling his spring total. Taillon’s velocity is down only about 0.5-1 mph from last year, and in a really good situation on the Cubs, he remains a candidate to offer some mixed-league value this year. It’s just going to be difficult to trust him initially.

This is getting a little concerning. Taillon did fine against Panama while pitching for Team Canada last week, but he’s given up eight homers and 23 runs over 9 1/3 innings in his four official outings this spring. His velocity is down about one mph from last year, which isn’t unusual, but nothing in his arsenal is working quite the way it should be. That he’s historically a pretty good spring pitcher and that he had extra incentive to get ready for WBC makes it just a little more worrisome that he’s pitching this horribly.

Taillon was off to a miserable start this spring with the Cubs, but he acquitted himself well tonight, allowing just one hard-hit ball to the 14 batters he faced. He struck out three and had a 36% CSW.

Canada’s ace is not off to a good start ahead of the World Baseball Classic. With two more homers allowed today, he’s sporting a 19.50 ERA this spring, having given up 13 runs and six homers in six innings. His velocity is fine, and he obviously has a lot of fine-tuning to do with his expansive arsenal. There probably still isn’t any reason for concern yet.

Taillon has gotten roughed up both times out so far, leaving him 0-2 with a 17.18 ERA. Still, his velocity is fine, and he wasn’t hit particularly hard today. It’s nothing to be concerned about at the moment.

Taillon is going to pitch for Team Canada in the WBC, but it didn’t appear today that he was making any special preparations to be ready for the tournament, as his velocity was down about two mph from last year. That probably suits the Cubs just fine; they don’t need him peaking in mid-March.

Taillon gave up a run in the first on a sac fly, but he should have been out of the inning if not for a gaffe in the infield that allowed a pop up to drop. The right-hander allowed another in the fourth on a single by Jake Bauers. Taillon walked one and struck out three, and likely will start a game in the NLCS if the Cubs can complete the comeback.